‘We’ll never march to Auschwitz without being able to walk out,’ says March of the Living president

At the opening ceremony for the March of the Living held at Kraków’s Opera House, the president of the International March of the Living, tells the audience of some 700 that the annual march from Birkenau to Auschwitz that takes place on Holocaust Remembrance Day is a statement to the world.

“We will never march to Auschwitz without being able to walk out,” says Phyllis Greenberg Heideman, repeating her call to create a world free of hate.

This year’s event marking 80 years since the end of World War II includes 190 buses and 90 delegations from 40 countries worldwide, says Greenberg Heideman.

“We have 80 survivors this year, it’s very symbolic, as it’s 80 years since WWII, thank God,” she says. “It will probably be the last time in this godforsaken place, Auschwitz Birkenau.”

Danny Danon, the representative of Israel to the UN, speaks at the ceremony about the lack of global outrage after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, nearly 80 years after the viciousness of the Holocaust.

“What followed was silence all around the world,” says Danon.
“Jewish people are not victims of history, we are its authors.”

Police chiefs and officers from around the world, a pastor and philanthropists light six candles in memory of the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust before the audience recites the Kaddish mourners’ prayer together.